426 UPUPID^E. 



passage, and it is a summer-visitant to the greater part of 

 the continent of Europe, but mostly very local in its distri- 

 bution, and in some countries, as Germany and Denmark, 

 says Prof. Keinhardt (Vid. Meddel. 1874, p. 117, note), a de- 

 crease has been noticed in its numbers for many years past. 



In the adult the bill is nearly black, with the lower man- 

 dible flesh-coloured for about a third of its length at the 

 base : the irides are brown : the crest is of a rich buff, the 

 feathers, which, when the crest is lowered, extend behind the 

 eye, being broadly tipped with glossy bluish-black, and some 

 two or three pairs of the longest, which are those about the 

 middle, have a whitish bar in front of the black tip ;* the 

 sides of the head and back of the neck, purplish-buff ; the 

 mantle greyish -brown, bounded abruptly by a black semi- 

 circular band, followed by a similar one of white, and then a 

 second black one ; rump white, upper tail-coverts black, some- 

 times edged with buify- white ; the tail black with a con- 

 spicuous white chevron, point foremost, across it; feathers 

 covering the carpal joint rich buff ; wing-coverts black, 

 broadly tipped with more or less buffy white ; primaries 

 glossy bluish-black, the outermost of each side with a white 

 spot on its inner web, the next six with a broad white bar 

 extending across both webs, the remaining three with a 

 white spot on the inner web only ; the secondaries and ter- 

 tials black with four or five conspicuous white bands, and 

 most of them edged and tipped with more or less buffy white, 

 the innermost being banded only on the inner web and that 

 obliquely ; t the chin, throat, breast and belly pale buff, often 

 with a vinous tinge, the flanks shaded with brown; lower 

 tail-coverts white : legs and toes brown, the claws black. 



The whole length is about twelve inches, of which the bill 

 measures about two inches and a quarter ; from the carpal 

 joint to the tip of the wing five inches and five-eighths. 



* Occasionally the frontal feathers are tipped with black, and a black bar is 

 sometimes seen in front of the whitish one. 



f Very considerable differences in the proportion and the disposition of the 

 black and white on the wings are observable in individuals, and perhaps more 

 reliance than is warranted has been placed on these markings as characteristic 

 of the various so-called species of the genus. 



